"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. ”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Let's put an old GOP lie to rest

A finance professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago decided to test out the old theorythat Chicago Mob boss Sam Giancana inflated vote totals for John F. Kennedy in the wards that he controlled.

And what did he find?

He found that the mob-controlled areas in the city, as well as Cicero and Chicago Heights, voted no differently than others. In fact, Democratic vote totals remained about the same in those wards for Kennedy in 1960 as they were for Adlai Stevenson in 1956. Binder also disputes the notion that Giancana helped Kennedy win the state of West Virginia, and that the mob influenced citywide votes via union support.Harrumph. We used to have a saying in Illinois about that to piss off the Repubs; for every stiff that supposedly voted for JFK in Chicago, there are three cows Downstate that voted for Nixon.